XCOM 2 is a lot more mod-friendly than its predecessor, which is great news for people with the time and knowledge required to create their own modifications and content. It’s also highly tweakable, with a huge amount of the game’s values and mechanics open to alteration through its exposed config files. All you need is a simple text editor like Notepad (or preferably, Notepad++), some basic familiarity with the game, and the time and patience to find what you’re looking for. In this article I’ll show you how to implement some basic tweaks to get you started—then, once you’re familiar with how it works, you’ll be able to find and alter the game to your heart’s content...

Yes, we're having a bit of an XCOM 2 day at PCGN HQ, but not just because it's out today and everyone's very excited - the community is also up to some fantastic stuff in the lead-up. Perhaps their biggest project yet is XCOM Barracks, a Steam-linked online database and interface for creating, sharing and downloading custom characters for XCOM 2. It includes headshots, pictures, descriptions, backstories as well as the actual character files themselves. It entered a beta phase yesterday in anticipation of being fully ready for this weekend...

XCOM 2 shares many elements from its predecessor, but there’s plenty of differences that’ll catch even a veteran player off guard. For this guide, I’m assuming you have a basic familiarity with XCOM—knowing important basics such as ‘What is Overwatch?’ and ‘Are aliens good or bad?’ Read on for nine things you should know before kicking off your campaign....

I've been avoiding any gameplay videos since I pre-ordered. I didn't want to spoil the surprise. I am girding my loins for the possibility of crashes as I've seen that mentioned a few times. Save early and save often I always say

I'm excited about this, because Codemasters previously said that there would be no DLC and that the game would be PC only. So now that they are going to consoles, maybe we can get some new Rally events as DLC

Great news! We’re delighted to be able to confirm that there will be additional content coming to DiRT Rally on April 5th, 2016. To showcase this content we’ve put together a brand new trailer - which you can take a look at now at

In addition to the content we’ve added during DiRT Rally’s Steam Early Access programme, you’ll now be able to enjoy some pretty substantial new additions to the game when April arrives. New Classic Mini and Super 1600 series will introduce the thrills of rallycross from the beginning of the game, and we’ve added 21 advanced rally driving video guides which will help gamers maximise their rallying performance.

For the first time in the game, you’ll also be able to experience the vintage full gravel surface at Pikes Peak – and for the first time, you’ll be able to do in the iconic Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak. Not only this, but three of Colin McRae’s most iconic liveries will join his Focus livery – allowing you to relive the exploits of a legendary rally champion and icon of motorsport. We’ve been waiting a long time to be able to bring you the Impreza livery – and the iconic yellow and blue design is now back at its spiritual home with DiRT Rally.

The DiRT team have also added seven extra cars, including some huge (and most-requested) fan favourites. The vehicles in question are...

DiRT Rally is available now on Steam, and this exciting additional content will be powersliding onto players’ desktops on April 5th 2016. Check out our launch video and our original post[blog.codemasters.com] for some high quality pictures and video of these new cars in action!

As ever, please stop by the Steam Community Hub, the forums, our Facebook page or on Twitter to let us know what you think of this new content.

And remember – if in doubt, flat-out!

You can thank me for the vintage full gravel Pikes Peak surface... I suggested that months ago

And, by the way, DiRT Rally will also be coming to PS4 and Xbox One on the same date, just wanted to throw that in as well

I'm an XCOM wimp and won't be playing with mods or Impossible/Iron Man mode or whatever. I tend to shamelessly save and restore from savegames often. It's of course unfair/not realistic, but half the fun for me with this genre is simply trying different strategies in certain situations and then reloading to try something else, after the inevitable facepalm.

Sébastien Loeb Rally EVO is coming in about a week and on the Steam page there is a demo available. I don't know how excited I am about this game, I really liked DiRT Rally and I'm not sure this game is going to bring more to the table. Heck, the folks are all excited because the game includes Pikes Peak, something that was already in DiRT Rally. Still, I'll check out the demo on Steam.

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Demo will include the following contents:

Track: Montecarlo – Sisteron

Cars: Mini Cooper S (70s) Peugeot R5 Polo Rally Car

Game mode: Rally single stage Playground Time Attack and Challenge Time Attack – a technical location where the player can test the reactions of the car on different surfaces like asphalt and dirt road

If I get the game it would be on Steam PC and like other folks, I'm looking at it primary for the single player experience. I'm still undecided, especially after watching some of the videos that show it takes a crapload of bullets to bring down a bad guy.

Wow, I take it back, Tharsis is now looking like a day one purchase for me after checking out this article in Rock, Paper, Shotgun. One thing that really interested (to me) about this is that the game uses dice; not behind the scenes, but actually in the playing of the game. It's pretty cool looking.

Here's a direct link to a three minute tutorial video that gives you a feel of how the game is played.

So what are the mods I need to have on this? I saw something about a 4GB mod - is that critical? Also, are there preferred graphic/follower/loot upgrades/updates you guys would recommend? I'm not looking for a full on conversion mod or anything of the sort, but if there are a few that fix obvious issues then I'd be interested to hear what they are.

The 4GB mod is needed to support the large graphics mods so FONV doesn't crash all the time. These are the mods I'm currently running via the Nexus Mod Manager:

The 4GB mod doesn't show up in the NMM since it provides an executable. The Texture Pack tells you where to get it in the description page.

I picked this up yesterday and have a couple of hours in it. I've added a few mods (graphics, easy hacking) and started having crashes, but then remembered I was supposed to be using the 4GB mod to avoid them. Now the game seems to be happier.

I didn't complete the game as I found that eventually the missions because somewhat repetitive, but also because I was leaving on a month long trip and knowing myself, I knew that when I came home it would be hard to get interested in it again. Also I topped out on a lot of attributes and I felt that there wasn't enough story to keep me playing.

That being said, I played it a solid forty hours, which is a lot for me. While the missions eventually did get a feeling of sameness to them, the gameplay is really lots and lots of fun. The driving mechanics are great, the terrain varied and quite extensive and the combat a lot of fun, both driving and on foot. It also ran smooth with great FPS, no crashes and no bugs or glitches worth speaking of. Seriously, the gameplay was a blast.

I can't comment as to whether it's worth the full price as seen on Steam right now, that's really up to each individual buyer. I got it on GMG for about $40 and feel I absolutely got my money's worth.

I'm pleased to let you know that the 1.02 patch we announced earlier today is now live, ahead of the anticipated Friday date.

In the 1.02 patch (132.1MB), you can expect:

Significantly improved loading times Optimizations to online stats General stability fixes Fixed an issue related to challenges, wherein vehicles sometimes disappeared when starting a challenge Fixed issues related to screen resizing and closing the game window before the game has fully started up

To those of you still having issues, rest assured we are working hard to alleviate these, and are listening very closely to everything that’s being said.

While the patch will improve performance on the whole, we’ve listened to some of the other concerns raised about the game and put together a little list of points which might alleviate these issues:

UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENESYou can skip cutscenes, in fact – all you need to do is hold B on your gamepad, or hit ‘Skip’ from the pause menu.

NO SPRINT BUTTONThis isn’t an oversight; it’s very much intended. Our designer’s intent was to encourage you to use Rico’s unique grapple to move around Medici far quicker than his legs would allow, as well as giving you the ability to traverse vertically.

NO CROUCHRico doesn’t hide. Getting him up in the air is our version of the cover mechanic. Rico is far more deadly in the skies, than pinned behind a container on the ground.

FINDING THE LAST CHAOS OBJECTWhile there’s no mini-map to help you liberate bases and towns, you can always bring up your map to help find Chaos objects. When you’re down to the last few objects in any given settlement, an approximate location for these will be displayed on the map.

For more hints and tips for improving your experience and really getting the most out of the game, check out our Hints and Tips thread, and feel free to add your own.

Again, a huge thanks for your support over the past week, and look out for more news soon. If there’s any changes to the patch between now and Friday, we’ll let you know here.

If you are still encountering any issues following the patch, please contact our Customer Support EU [support.eu.square-enix.com] or Customer Support NA [support.na.square-enix.com]

So I'm going back to playing and see if this fixed the CTD issues I've been having.

Yeah, I have about twelve hours in it now. I have a rig that meets the recommended specs but to keep it at a solid 60 fps I have to run at 1280x720. And every time I really start to enjoy some part of the game it crashes and even if I don't lose a lot of progression the game restarts me at a base and not where I was.

You shouldn't have to give up your power armor, though, I used it through the whole game. I think I had about 8 of them by the end of the game. I even got a full X-01 from a building and fully upgraded it. Unless you had some other special power armor?

Well, with a few different console commands I was able to resurrect Glory yesterday and get my missions back on track. That allowed me to finish the game today helping the Railroad at the end. I was still friendly with the Minutemen but had eliminated the Brotherhood of Steel and burned the Institute to the ground.

Holy smokes, that's completely different than the way I approached the end game. Guess I'll have to reload those saves I have and try a different ending... I'm not going to give up my power armor though, I'm in love with it

Since I was siding with the Railroad I'm not sure what else I can really do at this point, as I've completed a bunch of Institute missions. I'm kind of at the point where I either side with the Institute or piss them off, so...I'm not sure what else to do.

I completed the game on the BoS quest thread and it was a lot of fun. However, I've saved my save games so I could go back and do the Institute path. I'd be interested in hearing whether folks like that option. So go ahead, viva la Institute!

The big difference to me is that Blood Dragon was a tight $15 6-hour package, this is being sold as a full $60 "new" game.

Oops, you're right, I hadn't seen that they had arrived at a price yet. I don't know if this is the kind of content, no matter what the size of the package ( ) for which I am willing to part with that much money.

Well, it looks like a far cry game. Hunting, collecting and crafting with ranged and melee combat with a decent stealth system. I would be feeling more like getting it were it not for the glut of other open world games and if it felt more than a mod for FC4.

Well, Blood Dragon was essentially a massive mod to FC3, so I won't be dissuaded if Primal is just a huge FC4 mod, as long as the price point is OK.